What Klopp’s Liverpool exit means for Salah, Mbappe and Colwill

Robin Bairner

• 26 Jan 2024 06:11 CST
• 4 min read

Jurgen Klopp’s announcement that he will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season changes everything for the Anfield side.

In the short term, it should give the players and fans an extra injection of adrenaline to push the team towards their objectives this term. The Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup all remain up for grabs in what could be a remarkable crescendo for the German’s time on Merseyside.

Liverpool’s future after Klopp, which FootballTransfers announced in August was shaky, has suddenly become less certain.

There were already pressing questions at Anfield that needed answering, and the solution to these have become more complicated.

Salah’s future plunged into doubt

The most immediate problem for Liverpool is Mo Salah.

Out of contract in 2025 and courted by the Saudi Pro League, the Egypt international seemed likely to sign a new Anfield deal before Klopp dropped his bombshell.

What road does Salah take now? Will he stay and guide the Reds into a new era or will he see this as a neat time to cut ties with a team where he has enjoyed so much success?

On one hand, he will feel a weight of responsibility to lead the club into their next stage, on the other, he will appreciate that staying represents a risk to tarnishing ever so slightly his impeccable legacy.

Liverpool’s Mbappe dream over

Any prospect of Liverpool signing Kylian Mbappe from PSG in the summer has now surely gone, with Klopp’s forthcoming resignation firmly pushing Real Madrid as favourites for the France star if indeed he does leave the City of Lights.

While the France star is not a typical Liverpool signing, there was a sense that with Klopp at the helm, Mbappe might just be tempted to Merseyside.

After all, the World Cup winner previously hailed the German. In 2020, he told the BBC: “This season, Liverpool have been a machine in the Premier League. They have made winning look easy but the truth is that it is never easy.

“Performances, like they have been having, don't just happen. To be as ruthless as they have been would come from lots of hard work in training and from having a very good manager.”

Selling the Liverpool project to Mbappe without Klopp as their keystone is suddenly a great deal more difficult – perhaps even impossible – without the manager he holds in such high esteem.

Colwill surely stay at Chelsea

It is not just Mbappe whose future has pivoted on Klopp’s announcement.

Liverpool have been linked with a move for Chelsea’s Levi Colwill since last summer, with the Sun recently reporting that the manager is a “particular admirer” of the young central defender.

A move here was unlikely in any case given Colwill recently signed a new six-year deal with the Blues, but it is now virtually unthinkable that he will depart Stamford Bridge for Merseyside in the summer.

Indeed, Liverpool’s transfer plans have been thrown into a state of turbulence such that it is impossible to predict who they might strengthen themselves with in 2024.